Duty, Honour, Love
Chapter 36

Jane heard a scream too faint to be real. She was sure it wasn’t her. A voice echoed through her mind.

“No, no, I can’t be here. I must get free!” It wasn’t her voice.

Jane turned to see Dareia gripping the armrests harder her knuckles white with more effort than she had done tears leaking from Dareia’s eyes. She was staring straight into nothing. Dareia lip trembled she opened her mouth to speak but no words issued forth. Suddenly Jane was thrown into a series of blurred images, violent images filled with blood and gore. Despite the blurriness of the images Jane distinctly heard the sound of explosions and the screams of the wounded and dying.

“Help me, help me!” Kept echoing through Jane’s mind. With each cry for help pain surged growing in pace and strength. She tried to blink the pain away when she opened her eyes she was somewhere else. She was in an office she supposed it to be one with cream coloured walls and three desks which faced the centre of the room. There was one to her left, one to her right and the third in front of her. Behind each sat a grim faced person in Confederacy dress uniform. There was a Human and two T’Arni. Behind the desk in front of her sat an older looking female T’Arni her long blonde hair streaked with grey.

“We not asking you to throw away your future but you must reconsider and resign your commission?” The T’Arni stated bluntly.

“No,” Jane breathed. She was certain she’d said those words but her voice sounded different and why did she understand their words she couldn’t speak Galactic?

“You can’t be a tepe and still hold your rank in the GF,” the second T’Arni said. He was male but younger than the first T’Arni.

Jane was confused. What was a tepe and as for the GF she’d remembered the Confed soldiers guarding them had called themselves GF?

The Human remained silent seeming to study her in detail.

“I earned my commission through hard work!” Jane said defiantly. She paused giving the uniforms a hard look. “I’ll shoot the first one to try and tattoo me!”

“Don’t you think you are overreacting?” the male T’Arni said.

“By the Ancients that’s tantamount to making me a slave. I am T’Arni I won’t be a slave!” Jane was even more confused she was Human, definitely a Human but here she was implying she wasn’t. “It’s in our Constitution!”

“This is for the safety of our people,” the male T’Arni said.

“What is it the Humans’ say. My ass it isn’t!” Jane took a breath. “No I refuse I’m an officer with the Seventeenth GF and I’ll not compromise on that. Court-martial me if you have to.”

“I’m sure it won’t come to that!” the female T’Arni said hastily.

“Oh that would look bad since Major Locke evaced me?”

“Don’t push it!” the male T’Arni said.

The female T’Arni spoke cutting across the male T’Arni’s words. “You give us no choice. You will be re-assigned to a listening Station in the Drakaf system.”

“This will help you,” A familiar but strangely gentle voice murmured in her ear and her vision blurred.

Dareia ran down the street her heart beating like it was trying to rip itself out of her chest and sweat ran down her face. Fear spurred her feet despite the heat. A taller Human woman ran beside her in long boots to her thighs, a short black plastic skirt and a frilly white blouse. Her hair was dreadlocks in a multitude of colours. The long legged Human was keeping up in her boots with high heels.

“Come on Mel,” the Human gasped. “We can out run them.”

Dareia glanced up at the Human seeing a heavily made up female Human looking at her. She was confused she was Dareia and no one had ever called her Mel. Dareia glanced behind to see a posse of scantily clad Human women in pursuit. They looked angry.

“How the hell were we to know that this was their patch?” Dareia gasped back. Now she was even more confused. What in the name of the Ancients was a patch? “And why the hell are they chasing us?”

“Fuck knows just keep running. I reckon they want to make an example out of us!”

Suddenly a battered looking ground car pulled up ahead of them and three beefy looking Human males got out. Each dressed in suits but it was the expression on their faces that made her fearful.

“Shit!” the Human female with her said.

“I’ll double that!” Dareia squeaked certain that they weren’t going to be walking out of this or even crawling.

The Human female grabbed her and pulled her. “This way Mel!”

They ran into a debris filled alleyway only lit by the full moon overhead. It appeared to be a dumping ground for others’ junk. With as much haste as they could muster the made their way down the alley and abruptly stopped. The alley ended in a high glass shard topped wall.

“Shit, Shit, Shit!” the Human female sobbed.

Dareia’s eyes were better than the Human’s she could see a way through the lethal barrier. “Jane there’s a way through!” She pointed at a spot were the glass shards had been broken off. Somehow that was the tall Human’s name she didn’t know why she knew that.

“They’ll be on us by the time we tried to get over that. I’m spent I just can’t go on.”

“We can get over?” Dareia repeated. The sound of loud voices cursing had her pausing.

Jane pushed her behind a rusted dumpster. “Goodbye little Mel,” Jane said with reluctance. “Save yourself you’re the only thing in my sorry excuse of a life worth saving.” She planted a kiss on Dareia’s forehead and pushed her further in the darkness. “Stay silent, stay true to yourself where it matters.”

Dareia felt tears trickle down her face as Jane stood silhouetted in the moonlight. The voices were closer.

“Come on you bitches I’m over here!” Jane called out and walked out into the middle of the alley.

Dareia heard a sneering voice fear clutched her heart.

“Were’s the little bitch that runs with you, hag? She’s at least worth something. You on the other hand are a scanky bitch not worth her hide.”

“Next to useless,” another voice said.

“You’ll make a good example of what we do to poachers,” a third said.

“Bring it on!” Jane shouted.

Dareia stayed rooted to the spot. Fear coursing through every vein in her body. In the back of her mind she felt as if she was living a different life, a life not hers. She was a soldier and a soldier should stand shoulder to shoulder with her companions it was if she’s forgotten her training. The sound of harsh laughter had her cringing frozen to the spot and she tried to blot out the cries of pain.

“Hold her still boys!” A voice called out. “We’ll make the bitch pay then replace the little bitch. She’s yours!”

Dareia wanted to run, wanted vomit she did neither of those. She stayed still and quiet. They wouldn’t replace her in the dark, dark was safe. It was a mantra she’d repeated since she was little. She knew Jane was taking a beating for her. Finally the sound ceased to be replaced by the sounds of the city at night. Dareia crawled out into the alley her limbs trembling. A shape lay on the floor of the alley moonlight picked out dark stains on white.

“Jane?” Dareia whispered her voice harsh. “Jane?” she repeated. Dareia edged close to the shape. She hated herself for her cowardice. The shape moved and she almost screamed. “Jane?” she called out again.

“Mel,” a voice ghosted back sound full of pain.

Dareia suddenly found her legs and ran forward. Jane lay on the floor blood soaking her blouse and soaking the ground around her. A shard of metal almost as tall as Dareia jutted out of Jane’s chest. She couldn’t see much else despite the moonlight.

“Jane, my God Jane what have they done to you?” Dareia knelt beside her heedless of the blood on her bare knees. She was wearing the same clothes as Jane.

“It hurts,” Jane moaned. “Pills in my purse,”

Dareia scrambled around replaceing Jane’s belt purse. Her fingers trembled as she opened it and fumbled inside replaceing a bottle of pills. She poured out some into her shaking hands and dropped them into Jane’s mouth the Human swallowed them dry.

“Just hold on I’ll get you to a hospital.”

“And have them replace you?”

Dareia was certain she wasn’t on about the gang. Someone she feared, someone she had no recollection as to why she was afraid of them? “I don’t care I’ll save you!”

“Too late for that!” Jane whispered. “I can’t feel my legs why can’t I feel my legs?”

Dareia guessed that the shard was the problem and reached over to pull it out. She felt Jane’s hand on her wrist seeming cold on such a warm night.

“Don’t, please don’t.”

The sound of the pain in Jane’s voice broke the last of the barriers inside her. She wept her tears mingling with the blood on the floor. “No, no!” Dareia wept although she felt as if she wasn’t really there.

“You’ve got leave me I’m finished no medtech will save me.”

“Please let me help?” Dareia begged.

“You have your whole life to live. Just don’t make it revenge.” Jane fumbled for her comms bracelet. “Take this.” Her breath grew shallower. “Wear it and I’ll always be with you.”

“No don’t do that to me I love you?”

Janes coughed blood it bubbled out her mouth. “I know. Live be free…” Jane shuddered and grew still.

“No don’t leave me!” Dareia begged. She wept beside Jane’s body. Yet somewhere in the back of her mind a voice was telling her it wasn’t real.

“This will help,” A strangely familiar voice said. A spot of light suddenly appeared where there wasn’t one. “Walk to the light, come back….”

Dareia stood and walked to the spot of light not caring what happened to her.